The Department of Agriculture is set to leave its Dockgate Street office and is likely to move to new premises in Galway city, but there is anger amongst county farmers that it will not relocate to Athenry.
Fine Gael Galway West TD Paul Connaughton said he is “very concerned” by the news and added that if the department is “interested in value for money” that in giving “greater consideration to County Galway farmers” that it “must look outside the box on this issue”.
Dep Connaughton said the offices previous move from the Hynes Buildings in St Augustine Street to Dockgate Street “for an office that is gridlocked by traffic jams at peak traffic hours every day of the week” caused a lot of anger at the time.
He said the department should instead have considered locating at the Liam Mellows College/Teagasc campus site at Athenry, “where many more farm-related services such as the Farm Advisory Section and research facilities are currently headquartered”.
Dep Connaughton is now calling on the department to consider switching its office to the Athenry location.
“The move to Athenry would make good sense,” he said. “Because of the new road structure, Athenry is now a very easy location to commute to. There is ample free car parking facilities; farmers requiring direct personal contact with the DVO office could also engage with other services in a meaningful one-stop-shop way; and the accommodation costs would be lower than the rents of up to €900,000 currently paid for the Dockgate premises.”
Deputy Connaughton said he is arranging a meeting with the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney over the next few weeks to highlight the issues involved.
